Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!umd5!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!iuvax!bsu-cs!mithomas
From: mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: VMS global symbols
Message-ID: <2579@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 88 23:30:29 GMT
References: <1181@csun.UUCP>
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 26
Keywords: passing parameters
Summary: You have the right idea.

In article <1181@csun.UUCP>, mst@csun.UUCP (Mike Temkin) writes:
> I have a few programs that need command line parameters passed to them.
> The documentation that comes with them (not much there) shows that a global
> symbol ( :== ) should be used.  I have tried to get them to work, but 
> I see no difference between typing 'RUN PROGRAM' and setting a global
> symbol like 'PRG :== RUN PROGRAM 'P1 'P2' then typing 'PRG param1 param2'.
> 
> Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
> -- 
> Mike Temkin
> ...!{ihnp4,sdcrdcf,hplabs,psivax,ttidca}!csun!mst
> Cal. State U. Northridge, School of Engineering and Computer Science

Try defining your global symbol like this:

$ PRG :== "$fullpathname:[directory]program"

Then, to start up the program with passed parameters, type this:

$ PRG this_is_param_1 this_is_param_2

Programs that use this kind of passing will most often include the
LIB$GET_FOREIGN function.  This is how it gets its information.

Michael Niehaus
UUCP: ..!{uunet,pur-ee,iuvax}!bsu-cs!mithomas